FW 7.1 on Max BR1 Mini (secondary band signal strength)

Just upgraded from 7.0.1 to 7.1.0 hoping to see the signal strength on the 2nd band. Do see some of the new features (like signal threshold) but unfortunately not seeing any signal information for the secondary band.

1

Relevant section of release notes:

Where is the signal strength supposed to be visible for the secondary band?

3 Likes

Just tested with my device and the secondary band signal info is able to shown.

Can you please open a support ticket for support team to check ?
https://contact.peplink.com/secure/create-support-ticket.html

1 Like

Hello @sitloongs,
We have been checking this feature on a Max Transit with LTEA and the new feature does not appear to be working correctly yet.

On the dashboard, we see Optus working at LTE-A

Then when we go into the details, we see LTE-A is running as LTE and the secondary signal strengths are missing.

These two images verify the firmware & hardware versions.


Let us know if you would like any further assistance or information.
Happy to Help,
Marcus :slight_smile:

I just opened a ticket. Also rebooted the device again just to see if that made any difference. No change.

@mldowling and @NettleCreek

Other than the device firmware (7.1.0 above), you need to make sure the Cellular Module firmware is up to date in-order the secondary band signal info can be displayed.

Detail info on updating the internal cellular module firmware, please refer to the forum post below:

For current Firmware 7.1.0, we have included “Asia Pacific” LTEA-P device model to allow upgrade via Modem Firmware Update tool in the <support.cgi> page.

Targeted for firmware 7.1.1, we will include “Americas/EMEA” LTEA-W device model to allow upgrade via Modem Firmware Update tool in the <support.cgi> page.

2 Likes

Hello @sitloongs,
Thanks for getting back to us and supplying the link to the update process.

So I can see we need to update the firmware in this unit.


We selected “Update All” for this MAX Transit DUO
image
and waited a bit over 10 minutes to see if it would work and selected “Check again”, hmm looks like it did not work.
So we then did the two modems individually.
Modem #2 first

Followed by modem #1

What we also found is that the Status does not update, you need to manually select “Check again” to see the status, if you attempt to check during the update, we found we got this message
image
returning you back to
image
Once completed we had this

From our experience and based on the logs each modem realistically takes about eleven minutes to update and return to service. Also we needed to do a soft reboot after the upgrades as the modems would not accept configuration change requests (such as being asked to do 3G only when previous set to LTE only).

We hope this information is of benefit to other looking at the same process.

Out of interest, where does the update firmware come from, is it already on the device within the currently loaded Peplink Firmware or does it need to sourced it from the web each time?

I’ve got to ask, though why is the modem firmware update not done as part of the rest of the system update? In a multi modem device (eg. BR2, HD2, HD4, EPX) could these be updated in sequence as part of the upgrade process (one modem at a time) so to minimise link down time, and where the modem is being used for standby or backup, could it not be automatically schedule to update while the rest of the system runs on the other WAN connections?

I’m sure many people here would appreciate some education on why this is done this way. Our team have plenty of experience from the past with other vendors and chip sets, though it would be good to have Peplink’s official reasons.
Appreciate your assistance,
Marcus :slight_smile:

1 Like

@mldowling, have you connect a stable WAN link (e.g. wired WAN) to the Max Transit to proceed the cellular firmware upgrade? We do recommend to upgrade it with wired WAN. Please disable the cellular WANs when you perform the upgrade. This is to ensure the upgrade went through the wired WAN.

Max router will ship with latest cellular firmware most of the times. You may upgrade the cellular firmware via support.cgi page (if needed) if there is a new firmware release. Max router needs to contact our server to do the upgrade.

Thanks.

2 Likes

Hello @TK_Liew,
The majority of our customers MAX series units are out in the field, so a wired WAN is not an option.
The above shown unit was done completely via the remote web admin through InControl2, InControl2 is why we like Peplink so much cause you can normally do all of this securely and remotely.
Can you please ask enginnering to review the Firmware upgrade processes for the Modems?
Happy to Help,
Marcus :slight_smile:

1 Like

@mldowling, you still can upgrade the cellular firmware with cellular WAN. Based on our experience, the failure rate of the upgrade is lower if using the wired WAN.

This is just my 2 cents. :blush:

2 Likes

I’m seeing something similar. Two identical BR1 Mini devices, both running 7.1.0 build 2860. One shows signal info for secondary band, the other does not. No change after a fresh reboot of both devices. Both are connecting to the same bands (AT&T: 4+12).

Ironically, it is the one that does show secondary info that I am having trouble getting to work reliably with either Sprint or AT&T.

1 Like

@prosumer, for the device that not showing the secondary band info, please open ticket to us. Cellular firmware upgrade might be needed.

Please elaborate more on the problem you are facing for the device shows the secondary band info.

1 Like

@TK_Liew Thanks, ticket submitted on the secondary band issue. Is there a way for me to see what cellular firmware is running?

On the latter issue, there is an open ticket already on that unit, but I’m doing some research to try to help narrow down the problem. I’ll advise in the email chain if I find anything conclusive.

I advised this in the ticket.

1 Like